The Boy Scouts of America released its draft proposal on Friday (April 19) that will be voted on at its annual meeting in May.

“No youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone,” reads the proposed resolution, which also notes that the Scouts “will maintain the current membership policy for all adult leaders of the Boy Scouts of America.”

Frank Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee, told Baptist Press that he supports a “no” vote.

“Though this resolution is more acceptable to those who hold a biblical form of morality than what was being considered before, we would still prefer no change in the policy,” he said.

Scouting officials had earlier proposed dropping the gay ban for both adults and children, but then reconsidered after massive resistance from religious groups and conservatives.

The policy shift would leave intact the Scouts’ ban on atheists and other nonbelievers, who decline to say the Boy Scout Oath because it begins: “On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law.”

The Rev. Peter Morales, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, called the proposed resolution for the Boy Scouts to accept gay members but continue to reject gay leaders “a step in the right direction,” but criticized its decision on leadership. Photo courtesy Unitarian Universalist Association

“It is abhorrent to continue to discriminate against scout leaders,” he said.

Leaders of Scouting groups sponsored by religious organizations, including Mormons, United Methodists and Catholics, said their groups are mulling the Scout proposal.

According to the BSA, religious organizations comprise 70 percent of its sponsoring organizations. Mormons, Methodists and Catholics — the three largest groups — sponsored more than 1 million of the 2.6 million Scouts in 2011.

Adelle M. Banks

Adelle M. Banks is production editor and a national correspondent at RNS. She previously was the religion reporter at the Orlando Sentinel and a reporter at The Providence Journal and newspapers in the upstate New York communities of Syracuse and Binghamton.

[…] Boy Scouts proposal displeases religious leaders on both sides (Religion News) Conservative and liberal religious leaders may not agree on much, but both are expressing displeasure with the Boy Scouts’ proposal to accept gay members but reject gay leaders. […]